Information Management Assessment Report 2013

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) took part in the Information Management Assessment (IMA) programme run by The National Archives (TNA) in May 2013. The assessment covered BIS’s offices in Central London and Sheffield and the conclusions and recommendations were presented to BIS in October 2013. The report is being published today.

BIS were one of the original pilot Departments for the IMA process a number of years ago and were committed to be assessed again.

The assessment itself is extremely helpful to BIS. We are very pleased to see that a number of best practice areas were identified and that we were assessed as good or satisfactory for the majority of areas. I am particularly pleased that the report recognised the achievement of closing down our record storage facility (Westfield House) last year so efficiently and effectively with minimal disruption to the Department. I am also pleased the report recognises the progress being made by the K&I team across BIS and now Partner Organisations imbedding good K&I practices and procedures.

The KIM strategy for BIS and Partner Organisations has now been published and we are in the process of developing a Network of Excellence across our KIM Communities. We are about to replace our current EDRM system with Alfresco which will lead to new ways of working across the whole Department. These are exciting times for BIS and its staff.

We acknowledge there is still much to be done and I’m pleased to say that a number of recommendations have already been addressed. We will continue to work with The National Archives to make progress against the remaining recommendations and produce an action plan. At Senior Management level, we will focus on embedding a knowledge sharing culture and do everything we can to support this work going forward.

The Senior Management Team very much recognises the value and importance of effective K&I management. We are committed to continue to improve K&I across BIS and Partner Organisations and very much welcome the support of TNA and our staff in achieving our goals.

Howard Orme Senior Information Risk Owner, BIS Director General, Finance and Commercial Directorate Department of Business, Innovation and Skills